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NEW! Royal Caribbean Main Dining Room Menus

NEW! We have the Royal Caribbean main dining room menus for 2023 showcasing the new 7-day restaurant menus now on all Royal Caribbean ships.

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Recently, Royal Caribbean completely revamped its main dining room menus. These new dining room menus were launched earlier this year and can now be found on all Royal Caribbean cruise ships . If you want to know what’s for dinner (and breakfast and lunch), we have copies of all these Royal Caribbean Main Dining room menus.

Royal Caribbean Main Dining Room Menus 2023

BRAND NEW VIDEO REVIEW OF THE NEW ROYAL CARIBBEAN MAIN DINING ROOM MENUS!

Royal Caribbean Main Dining Room Breakfast Menu

Currently, the main dining room breakfast menu on Royal Caribbean has not changed. It still contains a number of classic breakfast options. Among the specialties are French Toast and the breakfast burrito, along with other standard options like cereal, eggs, and continental items.

The dining times on Royal Caribbean ships do vary slightly based on ship and itinerary.

For breakfast, the main dining room typically opens between 7 AM and 8 AM and stays open for about 90 minutes. So, it typically closes between 8:30 AM and 9:30 AM.

Breakfast Menu

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Royal Caribbean Main Dining Room Lunch Menus

On most itineraries, the main dining room hosts lunch on sea days and later port arrival days. On a typical 7-night cruise, this usually means lunch occurs twice in the main dining room.

Similar to breakfast, these options have not changed with this latest menu update. Thus, these menus still offer classics selections, with spaghetti Bolognese, the Royal Chicken sandwich, and steak frites on both days.

Likewise, sit-down lunch in the main dining room is available for an hour and a half on sea days and late port of call days. Typically, the main dining room is open for lunch from about 11:30 AM to 1 PM.

Lunch 1 | Lunch 2

Royal Caribbean Main Dining Room Dinner Menus

Unlike breakfast and lunch, the Royal Caribbean main dining room menus for dinner are considerably different from the previous version of menus.

Now, these new Royal Caribbean main dining room menus are themed. Each night, there is a new central focus across the starters, entrees, and desserts.

Welcome Aboard Dinner | A Taste of France | A Taste of Italy | A Taste of the Caribbean | A Taste of Mexico | The Royal Night | Bon Voyage

The rotation might change based on your itinerary, but all cruises should start with the Night 1 Welcome Aboard dinner.

For our 7-night Western Caribbean cruise, our remaining rotation included A Taste of France on Night 2, which was the first formal night. Then, the menus followed with a Taste of Italy on Night 3, Taste of the Caribbean on Night 4, and Taste of Mexico on Night 5.

Day 6 was our second formal night, so we had the Royal Dinner, featuring lobster tail and other typical formal night menu items.

Finally, Night 7 was the Bon Voyage dinner. Thankfully, these new menus did feature the wife’s favorite final meal, the Autumn Turkey Dinner.

Of note, the main dining room still offers two dining options, traditional dining or My Time Dining.

With traditional dining, there is an early seating around 5:30-6 PM and a late seating around 8-8:30 PM. Cruisers with traditional dinner have the same table assignment and waitstaff throughout the cruise.

With My Time Dining, cruisers can dine at a different time each night and/or with a different table configuration. Royal Caribbean does allow guests to pre-make reservations for each evening with My Time Dining. These guests will have a separate line from those without reservations when entering the dining room. Of course, cruisers can walk up to the host without reservations to request a table when hungry as well.

Dining hours for My Time Dining are typically around 6:45 PM to 9 PM each night.

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No More Classics on the Menu

As mentioned above, the new menus now feature themes. Although, this does not mean that all menu items align with the new name. For instance, while the Taste of the Caribbean menu offers a jerk seasoned pork chop, it also has a pesto tagliatelle dish.

Another big change is the removal of the nightly classics menu. While the rest of the menu always rotated, these standard selections used to stay the same all cruise.

Previously, the classics menu consisted of 6 starters, like Caesar Salad, shrimp cocktail, and escargot each night. Cruisers could opt for one of 4 classic entrees as well, including roasted chicken, a NY strip steak, and herb-crusted salmon. Finally, there were six classics for dessert, like apple blossom a la mode or the royal chocolate cake.

Those selections no longer exist on these new menus. Overall, this means that each night the menu is over 30% smaller, giving cruisers fewer options. Previously, the older menus offered 28 selections each evening– this included 10 starters, 9 entrees, and 9 desserts. Now, the menus include 6 starters, 7 entrees, and 6 desserts.

However, even though Royal removed the classics section, many of these dishes still appear on the new menus on various nights.

For instance, cruisers can enjoy shrimp cocktail on four evenings. Likewise, escargot is now available on three occasions: the Welcome Aboard, A Taste of France, and The Royal Night menus. Further, Spaghetti Bolognese was available three times.

Salmon was offered on three nights as well. With only a few other fish-centric dishes, it felt like there needed to be more seafood options though. Further, the cheese plate, one of our staple starters for the table, was gone from the menu completely.

Although, Harmony of the Seas did offer a grilled chicken option each evening. This option was a substitute for that evening’s featured poultry item, like chicken marsala or the autumn turkey dinner.

New Additions to the Royal Caribbean Main Dining Room Menus

While some items have been removed from the Royal Caribbean main dining room menus, there have been some new menu items added. Now, there is a featured vegetarian option each evening, like the spring pea and asparagus risotto or the stuffed red bell pepper.

Also, each evening features an Indian dish. This was a great addition for me. I enjoyed the aromatic chicken saag and the shrimp jalfrezi.

Many of the other menus items will be familiar to Royal cruisers, they are just on different nights/themed menus. The Welcome Aboard dinner still includes prime rib, and the second formal night (The Royal Night) still has the hallmark lobster tail. In 2023, additional lobster tails beyond the first one will cost $16.99 each.

While all these changes might sound like bad news, it really wasn’t in our opinion. When compared to our last Royal Caribbean cruise on Navigator of the Seas in December 2022, we actually thought the food preparation was much better.

For instance, the pork chop was a thick cut with plenty of spicy seasoning. The prime rib was perfectly roasted to a medium rare, served juicy and warm.

Further, we were big fans of the new themed approach, including the new Taste of Mexico and Taste of Caribbean options.

Typically, we are not impressed with main dining room desserts. However, of the new options, I did like the peanut-caramel bar on the Welcome Aboard menu. The Italian hazelnut-chocolate cake was essentially a lava cake with sliced hazelnuts. Of course, you can’t go wrong with the warm apple cobbler either.

Finally, one of the announced reasons for these menu changes was to make dinner more efficient. With fewer menu items, the galley can cook up better prepared items that can be served quickly.

While this sounds good in theory, our table of 4 was never out of the main dining room in under 90 minutes. Yes, we did eat solid three course meals each night, with a few rounds of drinks. So, we might be atypical, but the dining room seemed to function like any other Royal Caribbean cruise.

Overall, while there were fewer options, we did enjoy the new Royal Caribbean main dining room menus, even Heidi who is a picky eater. The new selections offered some great, and much needed, diversity. Food quality was improved, and the overall preparation was a notch above what we have come to expect from Royal Caribbean.

While we have heard much negative feedback, we have to disagree based on our recent experience from Harmony of the Seas. Of course, this could be partially related to the novelty of the menu items; however, we suggest you go into your next Royal Caribbean cruise with an open mind and test out some of the new main dining room menu options.

Have you tried the new Royal Caribbean main dining room menus yet? Do you agree with our assessment of these new offerings? Drop us an anchor below to share your thoughts on these recent dining changes.

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We have sailed on Royal with the NEW menu. There have been a lot of cutbacks in the name of efficiency. To cut waste a table of two gets two pats of butter and three rolls. While the staff is ready to get more when asked the service does suffer. MY Time Dinning does interupt the flow of service. There was a constant push to rate then 10 0ut of 10, every night. Portions also seem smaller. The whole idea is to make service similar to larger ships, who due to number of passengers can not provide the ROYAL service we have come to know. Room stewards have more rooms and thus service was cut in half (once a day). Refrigerators have been replaced with coolers. Lights only work when you are in the room. While this may save energy, returning to a hot room is an issue. Everything is on the app, I miss the Compass, the digital app takes added effort.

Agreed. New menu was not very good. Always enjoy the food on Royal. Not so much with this menu change. Probably will not be going on this cruise line again

I dislike the new menus very much. There is no question that the new menus are done to reduce costs now to speed up service. Also Royal has removed the vegan menu. My wife is a vegetarian not a vegan but enjoyed reading the menu to have additional options every night. Now they have one or two vegan options at most but she doesn’t always like them. As Royal’s ships get bigger and bigger the options get fewer and the service goes down

Sorry..the new menu was terrible!!

If you are gluten-free and a vegan, is there anything to eat on the menus?

I hate the new menus and I am diamond member and have recently went on carinval and they accomdate gluten free had so many options including French toast

I’ve been on Royal and Carnival, among others. I liked the options much better on Carnival than Royal.

We tried the new menus. Ours was a 5 night cruise, so the Royal dinner was not offered – so no lobster. The French and Italian night was good, but the Mexican and Caribbean nights were too spicy for us older guests – and without the standard offered each night, we were really disappointed with those two nights dining.

I totally agree. Not having those additional options really limits you if you don’t like any of the “theme” dishes. We just came back from a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Harmony and for two nights, Mexican and Caribbean themes we had to eat in the Windjammer. Dishes were too spicy. I hope some changes are made or we may have to rethink our loyalty to Royal Caribbean.

We went on royal Caribbean symphony of the seas in January 2023. They did not tell us they had change the menu. We have been on the same ship in July of the previous year. We were a gas that they were charging for the second tiny tiny lobster. We got shrimp cocktail once in the seven days. We don’t particularly care for spicy food so they had jerky and spicy things on the menu. I felt the menu was similar to what I would cook at home and every day meal not on a fancy cruise I was very disappointed, and we have no longer booked any trips with them after 27 years of cruising we have stopped working with Royal Caribbean the other thing they did we asked for a large table. They put us at a table with a family with seven children we’re in our 70s, we asked for a table with adults and they put us by our self. Finally, on the third day we were put in a table of what we call rejected adults who had the same experience. Most of these cruisers had been cruising for 40 some years and were high on the perks list . Many of them said it would be their last trip on Royal Caribbean. I did book a trip on Celebrity this past week for January and did investigate the menu prior to the booking so let’s see how this goes. We also did a princess cruise last winter and they have stopped letting you sit at the same table every night. It’s first come first serve every night and wait in line, which wasn’t too good. The entertainment and Royal Caribbean was better than Princess but it was repetitious . There were some nights on the cruise ship, symphony that there was nothing to do.

Sounds like Royal has joined the airline industry in a “race to the bottom.” So disappointing. How about raising prices a few dollars a night and keeping a higher level of service? There are really no other options for long distance travel than flying. There are plenty of other options for vacations besides cruising. Unfortunately we already have our next two cruises booked with Royal. I read someone’s comment that they are going to try Celebrity. Although we have enough points to “transfer” to Celebrity, we won’t be doing that since it is owned by Royal.

As Diamond Club Members and 41 cruises The new menu is a joke. I can have Italian at Carrabba. It’s all about recouping the monies From COVID. Cutting back to make a buck. And not to mention they now give us 4 drinks Not 5 on our sea pass card. What next? Very disgusting. I hope others agree

Very disappointing in new menus Just trying to cut back to make a buck. We can have Italian, Mexican at home The meals are too spicy to us older cruisers Need to change. Not acceptable. Have 40 cruises with RC and will be changing

DB & The Princess

Welcome Aboard! We are Don and Heidi, the husband and wife travel team behind EatSleepCruise.com. We took our first cruise vacation together 13 years ago and have been hooked ever since. Follow along as we share our travel tips, cruise reviews, information on ports of call, and the latest cruise news to help you plan the ultimate cruise vacation. Are you ready to embark on your journey to “sea the world, one port at a time”?

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• Cruise Line Restaurant, Room Service, and Bar Menus / Food and Drink

NEW Royal Caribbean Dinner Menus 2024

by Prof. Cruise · Published January 16, 2023 · Updated January 28, 2024

Royal Caribbean’s Dinner Menus in 2024: What Changed?

In 2023, Royal Caribbean made some significant changes to their (complimentary) main dining room dinner menus. Most nights now feature foods from a certain region and gone are the “classic” options that used to be available every night. There is no longer be a separate vegan menu, as there is one vegan starter, entree, and dessert available on the regular menu each night (vegetarians will also have to order the vegan entree as there isn’t usually a separate vegetarian entree). You’ll also note that guests are limited to one complimentary Maine lobster tail on “Royal Night.” While you can order additional servings, each will incur a cost of $16.99.

The new menus first appeared on Symphony and Wonder of the Seas, but have now been rolled out fleet-wide. There are 9 menus in rotation with the “Welcome Aboard” menu always being served on the first night and the “Bon Voyage” menu always served the last night. The order of the other menus will vary depending on ship, cruise length, and itinerary, so be sure to check the app or the dining rooms once onboard.

Whether you love or hate the updated menus (reviews have been very mixed so far), they’re likely to be around for at least the next few years, so if you’re cruising in 2024, these will be your complimentary main dining room (MDR) menus.

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menus 2024

So…here are the menus.

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 1

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 2

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 3

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 4

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 5

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 6

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 7

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 8

Royal Caribbean’s New Dinner Menu 9

Royal Caribbean’s New Kids Dinner Menu

And with that…

Class Dismissed.

Today’s Bonus Cruising Tip

I ALWAYS buy  travel insurance  (especially during these uncertain times) to cover my cruises, but I  NEVER purchase it through Royal Caribbean . It costs more and usually covers less than policies you purchase on your own. I go through sites like  travelinsurance.com  to compare plans and prices and get the best deal for the coverage I want.  Spend less on insurance  and spend more on excursions, special onboard cruise experiences and…future cruises!

Homework (10 points): What do you think of the new menus? Share your thoughts or questions to the comments!

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We are leaving on Saturday January 21 aboard the Symphony. One lobster tail is not that much to fill you up at dinner. I understand cost is involved but I am sure many cruisers are going to be left disappointed. Not having the familiar alternatives for dinner also makes some choices tough. I do not eat Mexican food or Mediterranean so choosing something I like will be difficult, yet you don’t want to be paying extra a few times for the more expensive options like the filet mignon or surf and turf. They have already eliminated the midnight buffets, the pool deck party with food setup, the ice carvings, the mints on the pillow, the folded napkings at dinner and I could go on. Now they have even eliminated the Diamond Plus members going to the concierge lounge. Seems they charge more and give you less. Bring back Richard Fain and get rid of Michael Bayley. He seems much more interested in showing a huge profit than the feelings of his loyal cruisers.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts – I know there are a lot of people who agree with you!

Being Loyal to Royal, these are some interesting changes, but I am not going to complain. Also being vegetarian makes it a bit more difficult to go to the MDR on certain nights due to the lack of options for us to eat, and some of the dishes I am just not a fan of. I wonder if they will still make Indian vegetarian dishes from the “secret menu”? That’s all I care about 🙂 If not, can just go to the buffet or a specialty restaurant if it’s onboard, like Playmakers!

I’ll definitely miss the vegan menu – between that and the vegetarian options on the regular menu, there was a great selection for us vegetarians (not to mention the Indian menu – I hope it’s still an option, but I’m not optimistic). It’s a bit disappointing that there’s generally only one vegan appetizer and entree each night for both vegans and vegetarians. No choice at all. But I understand the need to streamline and cut costs. Don’t like it, but understand it and will continue to enjoy cruising on Royal. As you say, there are many dining options to choose from each night.

Having just returned from a trip on the Navigator, I was severely disappointed in the new menu! I had the grilled New York steak, dried hokey puck! Vegetarian choices were terrible. Good in the MDR we’re awful. Are most of the time from the buffet. So sorry for the changes, not making points here, will be trying other lines soon.

I so appreciate you sharing your experience, but I’m sorry it wasn’t a better one for you! As a vegetarian I’m disappointed to hear about the veggie choices (especially since they are so limited on the new menus and the line has eliminated separate vegan menus). Ugh. Hopefully they will tweak things if negative feedback keeps rolling in (be sure to fill out your post-cruise survey). We’ll see. In the meantime, I always think it’s wise to try other lines, as you might find something else that works better for you. I just returned from cruises on Princess and Celebrity and the food was great on both. I’ve always enjoyed the food on Holland America too. Hope you can find something you love!

Just got off the Rotterdam. Food was hit or miss. So don’t think that HAL is any better.

Thank you for the screenshots of the menu! I rarely ordered from the classics, to me cruising is in parts about eating new things or at the very least, eating different things. My wife will surely miss the shrimp cocktail the few nights it isn’t on the menu, but I am sure she will find suitable replacements. I was salivating while studying the menus 🙂

I get why people complain over only getting 1 portion of lobster (and a small one at that), but I have never understood why people are so crazy about this lobster, it is completely unseasoned, the butter adds nothing at all (if only it had garlic or some herbs in it) and often times it feels like rubber. Others complain the themes and / or menu items are too spicy or seasoned, unless they’ve radically changed since I last cruised with them I do not understand this at all.

My main complaint over what I saw is that they do not seem to fully commit to their themes, which is a shame. For example; on mexican night I do not get why spaghetti bolognese is there. Perhaps there is a need to Always serve a pasta dish and indian food… !?

[…] CARIBBEAN INTRODUCED NEW MDR DINNER MENUS IN 2023. GO HERE TO VIEW THE UPDATED […]

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About Prof. Cruise

Given name Sarah, but also answers to Prof. Cruise. Retired after 10 years as a college professor to focus full-time on her primary research interest: travel. With a concentration in cruising.  Home port: Seattle.  Mom of a shaggy-haired dog and a shaggy-haired human.  Lover of books and dessert.  Fancies herself a bit of a comedian – you’ve been warned.

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Travel | Alaska is ready for another record-breaking…

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Travel | tech layoffs jolt bay area economy with hundreds of new job cuts, travel | alaska is ready for another record-breaking cruise season.

Alaska is home to more than 30,000 grizzlies, but the state’s cruise industry is experiencing anything but a bear market as momentum of last year’s record-breaking season is expected to continue in 2024.

The most-visited Alaskan port, Juneau set a new mark a year ago with 1.65 million passengers descending on the capital city during cruise season, which generally runs from April to late October. That figure from the Juneau Chamber of Commerce is a Denali-sized jump of 30 percent compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

Coinciding with Alaska’s 65th anniversary of statehood, the upcoming cruise season appears to be just as robust, with 19 cruise lines sending 43 ships to the Last Frontier. Kicking things off for the second straight year is the 4,008-passenger Norwegian Bliss, which docked in rustic Skagway last week. With four mainstream-category ships homeported in either Seattle or Vancouver, Norwegian Cruise Line  has nearly 100 more after that.

Two competing companies have staked out even larger claims in this modern-day, maritime Alaskan gold rush. Holland America Line is sending seven premium-class ships for 141 total cruises. And at the top of the totem pole is Princess Cruises , which is celebrating its 55th year in these waters with seven premium ships sharing 158 departures.

Not counting grand voyages with itineraries so rich they make a visit to Alaska seem more like a pit stop, this cruise season will see more than 800 trips of mostly seven to 10 days starting or ending on this side of the Pacific. Where they’re all going is a destination rich in unparalleled wilderness, wildlife and native culture. In other words, bucket list stuff.

“Alaska is one of those places that draws you in and sets the hook right away,” said Kristi Switzer, destination marketing manager for Travel Juneau. “Visitors come for the otherworldly experience of being in the presence of glaciers and fjords, seeing whales and bears and finding the balance of Alaska Native cultural heritage with the rustic sophistication found in the capital city.”

Although Switzer recommends visits lasting several days instead of several hours, the city’s destination evangelist hopes that a partial day in Juneau and each major Alaskan cruise port will have 1.5 million passengers wanting more.

“This magical corner of the world has so much to offer beyond being a checkmark on people’s bucket lists,” she said.

Alaska is a checkmark for about three-quarters of all passengers headed there, according to the Alaska Tourism Industry Association, and the same can be said for two ships this season.

Starting with a six-day sail out of Vancouver on May 11, the namesake of Celebrity Cruises ’ popular Edge class will make its Alaskan debut with weeklong roundtrips from Seattle through Sept. 13. The 2,918-passenger vessel features a unique “outside-in” architecture that provides more floor-to-ceiling glass on the exterior and expanded outdoor spaces to soak up the Alaskan coastlines.

Edge will be joined by a pair of fleet mates for the season, albeit Summit’s seven-day roundtrips are turnarounds out of Anchorage or Vancouver, and Solstice’s weeklong jaunts are solely based in the British Columbian seaport. Celebrity, a premier-category cruise line has 57 departures to Alaska scheduled this year.

The other new recruit is Silver Nova, the youngest Silversea Cruises  ship in the luxury fleet to ever service Alaska. Capped at 728 guests, Silver Nova was launched last year and has the goods to do justice to a dreamlike place that captures the imagination of wilderness lovers and history buffs.

“Silver Nova is the ideal ship for Alaska cruising,” said company spokesman Brad Ball. “Her innovative design, which incorporates an unprecedented 4,000 square meters of glass, immerses guests into the incredible scenery of Alaska from virtually all venues and suites, with far-reaching views at every turn.”

The ship’s reimagined pool deck, which overlooks the water on her starboard side, and all-new outdoor venues — the Dusk Bar and the Marquee — allows unique openness to view spectacular Alaskan glaciers and wildlife. Those who want to experience an older and smaller Evolution-class Silversea vessel can book the Silver Muse, which also will sail mostly seven- to 14-day trips between Anchorage and Vancouver.

Because nearly every Alaskan cruise includes the staples — Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Inside Passage and Denali with a land add-on — some cruise lines like to shake things up with unique itineraries.

Holland America has a roundtrip that makes it easy to visit the 49th and 50th states without a long flight. A new “Glaciers & Volcanos: Alaska to Hawaii” cruise, part of the premium line’s Legendary Voyages collection of journeys from 25 to 59 days, departs on Aug. 31 from Seattle or Sept. 1 from Vancouver aboard the 1,916-passenger Westerdam. The nearly four-weeklong itinerary includes seldomly visited Kodiak and Dutch Harbor before heading down to the tropics to make four calls to three Hawaiian islands.

Seabourn  strives to offer a more tasteful Alaskan cruise and not only because it’s an ultra-luxury cruise line. “Caviar on the Ice” is a savory and swanky soiree on every Alaskan voyage, and when the 450-passenger Odyssey is in Sitka, a town originally built by Russian traders in the early 1800s, Seabourn guests can enjoy a culinary adventure that includes a scenic drive to a taproom for a sampling of local brews and a few eateries to try Siberian-rooted pelmeni dumplings and a hot dog made with caribou that the locals call “reindeer dawgs.” Sorry, vegetarians and friends of Santa, but Blitzen on a bun is da bomb.

Disney Cruise Line  is sending its 2,700-passenger Disney Wonder out of Vancouver for 15 week-long roundtrips, one five-day spin leaving on July 24 and an extended nine-day voyage on July 15.

Other cruise lines showing passengers a whale of a time in Alaska include Crystal, Cunard, Hurtigruten, Lindblad/National Geographic, Oceania, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas and Viking.

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